Heavy duty rail track assemblies

ABSTRACT

A heavy duty rail track assembly comprising a steel rail with a horizontal bottom flange, supported by a longitudinal beam including a steel beam set in concrete and supported from beneath by concrete piles or foundations. The steel rail may be mounted directly on the steel beam, or with an intervening steel sole plate, but there is no intervening cement grouting. The concrete surrounding the steel beam may include internal steel reinforcements.

United States Patent 1191 1111 3,920,182

Molyneux [4 1 Nov. 18, 1975 HEAVY DUTY RAIL TRACK ASSEMBLIES 3,361,351 1/1968 Moses et a] 238/ 7 [/61 Inventor: George Molynwx, Eastbwok Road, 332231323 5/1333 BZETZZ'PZITTI:iiiijiijiijiji: 53211;? Gloucester England 3,784.097 1/1974 Landis 238/282 [22] Filed: Nov. 23, 1973 Primary Examiner-M. Henson Wood, Jr. [211 App}. 418,207 Assistant ExaminerRichard A. Bertsch Attorney, Agent, or FirmYoung & Thompson [52] US. Cl. 238/25; 238/2; 238/115; 238/282 51 1m. (:1. E01B 3/12 ABSTRACT [58] Field Of Search 238/24-26, A heavy duty rail track assembly Comprising a Steel 238/281, 269, 265, 115, 116, 117, 1, rail with a horizontal bottom flange, supported by a 282 longitudinal beam including a steel beam set in concrete and supported from beneath by concrete piles or [56] References Clted foundations. The steel rail may be mounted directly on UNITED STATES PATENTS the steel beam, or with an intervening steel sole plate, 789,278 5/1905 Hoffmann 23 8/25 but there is no intervening Cement grouting The 893,134 7/1908 Braden crete surrounding the steel beam may include internal 1,116,446 11/1914 Lamb... steel reinforcements. 1,694,811 12/1928 Edson 1,741,005 12/1929 Adams 238/26 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures US. Patent Nov. 18,1975 Sheetlof2 3,920,182

U.S. Patent Nov. 18, 1975 Sheet 2 of2 3,920,182

HEAVY DUTY RAIL TRACK ASSEMBLIES This invention relates to the construction of heavy duty rail tracks as used in connection with moving Goliath cranes and the like. In such applications it is extremely important that the rail tracks should be accurately aligned and levelled and they must of course be capable of supporting extremely heavy loads.

The normal method of constructing and assembling such a track is to provide a foundation in the form of piles or mass concrete, the foundation being arranged to support a longitudinally extending concrete base in which are embedded a number of vertical anchorage bolts. A longitudinal metal sole plate is positioned above the concrete base with an intervening layer of grouting, the sole plate being secured in position by. the said bolts. The rail itself is mounted on the sole plate, usually with an intervening resilient pad, by means of a series of rail clips attached to the upper surface of the sole plate along each side of the rail.

In constructing such a rail assembly the concrete base is laid first, and the rail attached to the sole plate is positioned over the concrete and accurately levelled with temporary supports, after which grouting is introduced into the space below the sole plate. This grouting suffers from various disadvantages. Normal cement groutings are liable to fail, due principally to the very heavy loads exerted on the rail and to the fretting corrosion which results from slight bending of the rail as the load moves along it. Epoxy mortar is sometimes used for the grouting and does reduce the failure risks, at least for limited periods, but epoxy mortars are extremely expensive and the cost can exceed the whole of the steel work involved, and the effective life of such mortars may be limited. Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a rail track assembly which will avoid some of the existing problems and also the expense of materials such as epoxy mortar.

Broadly stated the invention consists in a rail track assembly, particularly for heavy duty, comprising a longitudinal rail mounted on and located by a longitudinal beam which consists of or includes a steel beam or girder, without intervening grout, the longitudinal beam being supported from below off piles, concrete foundations, or the like.

In a preferred form of the invention the rail is supported on a metal sole plate which is part of a compound girder, or a plain beam may be used. The sole plate may be secured by welding to the steel beam.

Preferably the bottom flange of the steel beam is supported on the pile or concrete foundation via grouting, packing pieces, or the like, and in any case the assembly conveniently includes means such as lugs attached to the sole plate for lifting the rail and steel beam to facilitate adjustment of the packing, filling, or grouting below the bottom flange of the steel beam.

The invention may be performed in various ways and one embodiment will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional end elevation (for comparison purposes) through a conventional rail track assembly using an epoxy mortar grouting,

FIG. 2 is a sectional end elevation through a rail track assembly according to the invention, and

FIG. 3 is a similar sectional end elevation through another form of track assembly according to the invention.

In FIG. 1 the conventional track assembly comprises a rail 10 carried on a sole plate 11 via a resilient pad 12 and anchored by means of spring clip anchorage devices 13 which in themselves form no essential part of the present invention and need not be described in detail. The sole plate 11 is located on a series of upstanding bolts 15 set into a concrete base 16 and thespace between the sole plate and the concrete base is filled with an epoxy mortar 18.

In the construction according to the present invention as illustrated in FIG. 2 the rail 20 is mounted on a sole plate 21 by means of anchorage clip devices 22, all similar to that illustrated in FIG. 1. The anchorage slip devices 22 are conventional and are operated by loosening nuts 22, whereafter the devices may be shifted laterally according to the position of the rail, and then the nuts 22 are tightened again. The sole plate is mounted directly on the upper flange 23 of a steel beam 24 having a web of appreciable height to provide substantial stiffness against distortion under vertical loads. The vertical dimension of the beam 24 in this example is about 4.5 times the vertical height of the rail. The connection between the sole plate and the flange 23 may be by stitch welding for example, as illustrated at 19, the thus-integrated sole plate 21 and flange 23 comprising upper flange means of the beam 24. The bottom flange 26 of the steel beam is supported from a pile cap 27 or a mass concrete foundation, the piles or foundations comprising foundation means, and the whole unit may be mounted in a channel 28 in a concrete surround 29, the spaces on either side of the beam being filled with lean concrete fill 30.

The steel beam may be formed in a number of sections, each having a length of say 20 feet, to bridge from one pile cap to the next. If the piles or other foundations settle unevently after a period of use it may be necessary to adjust and re-level the track. Accordingly at each end of each section a lifting lug 32 is provided on both sides of the sole plate. Each lug has an aperture to receive a D shackle and a lifting beam can be passed across through the two shackles and raised by jacks bearing on the concrete.

In constructing the track assembly the rail 20, sole plate 21 and steel beam 24 are first assembled as a unit and are then accurately levelled using the lifting lugs or other adjusting devices, and temporarily located. Bearing plates or packing pieces 34 are then inserted below the bottom flange 26 of the steel beam, at each end, to locate the beam accurately. High strength grout is then introduced between the bottom flange 26 of the beam, and the top of the pile caps or concrete foundations, after which the lean con crete infill 30 is introduced into the space around the beam.

With this construction the loads exerted on the rail 20 are transmitted directly through the sole plate 21 to the steel beam 24 and owing to the stiffness of the beam there will be little if any distortion of the rail under load and consequently no fretting at the bearing surfaces. In particular there will be no appreciable deflection at the bottom flange 26 of the beam where it is supported on the bearing plates and grout infilling. The stiffness of the beam also effectively distributes the weight of the applied load and thus minimises any risk of failure in the grouting below the beam.

In a possible alternative the steel beam 24 is cast into a so-called ground beam, rather than being supported on pile caps or concrete foundations as in FIG. 2. The construction stages are essentially similar but the com- 3 plete rail 20, sole plate 21, and beam 24, are levelled and located in position over the foundations before the ground beam is cast by placing concrete in the ground beam cavity, around and below the steel beam. The ground beam will normally have internal reinforcement in addition to the steel beam itself.

FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of the invention, in which the track rail is supported on a monolithic beam which includes botha steel beam cast into concrete and also internal reinforcement for the concrete. In this example the track rail is mounted on and supported by flange means comprising the upper;

horizontal flange 36 of a steel beam 37, without an intervening sole plate. A resilient pad 38 is interposed between the bottom of the track rail and the flange 36 and the track rail is adjustably secured to the flange by means of a series of anchorage, devices 39 with nut 39' as before, positioned along the length of the rail on opposite sides in the normal manner. The beam 37 extends the full length of the track rail (or of any particular section of the rail) and is embedded in a monolithic concrete beam 40 which also includes metal reinforcing rods 41, and is preferably cast in situ. The vertical web of the beam is formed with spaced holes 42 through which the concrete penetratesto assist in key ing'the beam into the concrete. The undersurface of the concrete monolithic beam is considerably below the level of the bottom flange 45 of the beam 37 and at intervals spaced along the length of the beam supporting stools 46 in the form of short lengths of l-section steel beam, are incorporated into the concrete unit to provide support points designed to be secured to piles or other foundations in the ground below the rail track assembly. Concrete grout or packing pieces are introduced below the bottom flange of each stool 46' and the i respective pile after the track rail has been accurately I positioned and levelled. The concrete beam 40 is then cast in situ and finally lean concrete infill may be introduced into spaces around and below the concrete beam.

1 claim:

l. A heavy duty rail assembly comprising a longitudinal composite beam supported on foundation means,"

the said longitudinal composite beam including a steel beam embedded in and extending longitudinally of a. concrete beam and the saidsteel beam having upper horizontal longitudinal flange means the top surface of which is exposed and disposed above the concrete, the said assembly also including a longitudinal metal rail mounted on and substantially narrower than said top surface of the said steel beam and laterally adjustably located on said top surface by means of a series of am chorage devices located at spaced intervals along both opposite edges of the said metal rail, the said anchorage devices being attached directly to said upper horizontal flange means of the steel beam, said beam including 

1. A heavy duty rail assembly comprising a longitudinal composite beam supported on foundation means, the said longitudinal composite beam including a steel beam embedded in and extending longitudinally of a concrete beam and the said steel beam having upper horizontal longitudinal flange means the top surface of which is exposed and disposed above the concrete, the said assembly also including a longitudinal metal rail mounted on and substantially narrower than said top surface of the said steel beam and laterally adjustably located on said top surface by means of a series of anchorage devices located at spaced intervals along both opposite edges of the said metal rail, the said anchorage devices being attached directly to said upper horizontal flange means of the steel beam, said beam including structural steel work extending down from said flange means to the lower surface of the beam to transmit load on said rail through said beam to said foundation means. 